Hydra-headed movement at war against the West

THE Australian tourist said he planned to come back to Bali. "I love the place," said Jeff Day, catching his flight home to Sydney. "This bomb isn’t a Balinese problem, it’s a world problem."

But the charred corpses in Kuta are being presented as the fault of the Indonesians. Why wasn’t President Megawati’s government more vigilant? Why didn’t she move against Jemaah Islamiah, the fundamentalist Islamic network with links to al-Qaeda? Why hasn’t she arrested its leader, Abubaker Baasyir, chief suspect for Saturday’s merciless bomb attack?

The double standards are awesome. We might equally ask why President Bush failed to prevent the 11 September attacks, why US intelligence did not keep track of al-Qaeda, why Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still free to "roam", as Mr Bush puts it.

Mr Baasyir, whose group has bombed churches, claims he has nothing to do with the attack. Indonesian ministers advance the novel argument that they cannot detain people without evidence - a consideration that does not seem to trouble their US and UK counterparts.

To stiffen the Indonesians’ resolve, FBI agents have turned up in Jakarta. This will strengthen the hand of those who subscribe to the conspiracy theory, peddled by Mr Baasyir, that the bomb was somehow got up by the Americans "to justify allegations that Indonesia is a base for terrorists".

As world leaders call for culprits, one simple fact is getting lost. The Sari club was closed to Indonesians. Those Indonesians who died in the blast (between ten and 13, according to reports) were passers-by. This was a bomb aimed specifically at foreign tourists. Most of those killed or injured were young, pleasure-loving westerners.

For many, that makes their deaths particularly poignant. But there is a danger that the country where they died is seen as a blameworthy backdrop, rather than a fellow-sufferer from the carnage.

It is not just that Bali faces the collapse of tourism. Some reports claimed foreigners were given hospital beds and treated first while Indonesians were forced to lie on the floor and wait.

There is no more sense in pointing the finger at President Megawati than in laying the Twin Towers at President Bush’s door. We do not hear of the Emir being rebuked for the shooting of two US marines in Kuwait, or Tunisia being held responsible for a suicide bomber who killed 21 people outside a synagogue.

Blaming individual nations is as fruitless as naming individual villains. This is a hydra-headed movement. The al-Qaeda label is convenient but falsely comforting, suggesting a network that can be identified and confined.

As Peter Bergen, a US-based expert on bin Laden, told The Scotsman: "Let’s say it is nothing to do with al-Qaeda. Is that a cause for comfort? I don’t think so. Because then, we are moving into a new phase of leaderless resistance where people are doing things on their own."

The psychological urge to see the face of the enemy, to demonise bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, is as instinctive as the urge to finger a particular country - Afghanistan, Iraq - as the danger zone.

But the severed bronzed limbs and grieving friends in Bali should be the final wake-up call. This is a war against the West, born of rage at cultural imperialism and global injustice. As Mr Bergen suggests, it is "leaderless".

We can no longer pretend that resentment is limited to a few "Islamic terrorists" (a phrase which many Muslims find offensive). The bombers may be few, but the sentiment they exploit is widespread. Only last week, a coalition of Islamic parties scored a big success in Pakistan’s elections, having campaigned for American troops to leave the country.

Nor is anti-western feeling directly solely at the US, as Australians have learnt to their bitter cost. Kuta is a relaxed resort, associated with sex, drink and drugs, in a predominantly Muslim country where many people are offended by such behaviour. Bali hosts the only openly gay bars in Indonesia, and tolerates topless sunbathing. The town was targeted as an oasis of western decadence.

It is time we faced up to this, not as an excuse but as a reason. Neither the John Wayne soundbites of President Bush nor the outraged idealism of Tony Blair address the problem. Their focus on Iraq, a relatively westernised society run by the secular Baathist party, blocks a deeper understanding of where al-Qaeda’s cruelty derives from.

The spread of satellite and cable television has a part to play. Images of prosperity and sensuality are beamed into communities where they have the potential to provoke envy and outrage. Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV network shows Dynasty and Baywatch throughout Asia. Indonesians see Britney Spears on MTV.

Borderless television communicates western priorities. Naomi Klein, the Canadian author and activist, argues that "our lopsided coverage of global conflicts is helping to feed ... a rage at the persistent asymmetry of suffering".

Klein was shaken by how many Third World friends, from South Africa to Iran, contrasted the continual re-playing of images from 11 September with the near-invisibility of those who died in Afghanistan or during the Gulf War. Networks such as CNN appear international, she writes, but they still report "from clearly American and European perspectives".

Her point is borne out by a study of British Muslim reaction to news coverage in the aftermath of 11 September. The research, by the British Film Institute, found "a deep lack of trust" in UK and US television news, and deep resentment at the way other tragedies, from earthquakes in Turkey to the shooting of Palestinian children in Gaza, were felt to be ignored. Respondents spoke of "our ground zeros", a phrase being echoed by stricken Australians this week.

The Prime Minister has been sporadically sensitive to these concerns. He took care to meet British Muslims after 11 September, emphasising that the bombing of Afghan-istan was not "a war on Islam". In his Labour conference speech, he insisted that both Israelis and Palestinians should observe United Nations resolutions and pledged to restart the peace process, although no more has been heard of that promise.

But neither George Bush nor Tony Blair will accept the idea of a cultural clash. "Our values aren’t western values, they’re human values," said the Prime Minister in Blackpool.

Both men could benefit from skimming a new report which explores whether western ideas of democracy and human rights are compatible with Islam. Published by the United States Institute of Peace, a think-tank funded by Congress, it finds grounds for hope in grassroots campaigns by women and young people in countries like Afghanistan and Iran.

The authors come up with the subversive suggestion that the US should give aid and back democracy across the Muslim world, citing Turkey’s peaceful reforms under pressure from the European Union.

That is no consolation to the injured and bereaved in Indonesia, a country which, until four years ago, was run by an Australian-backed dictator. But it is food for thought.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.